Aside from using gallium arsenide for fabricating super high frequency transistors, silicon germanium hetero bipolar transistors, because of their lower fabrication costs, have found increased use in high frequency areas. The sequence of layers in such transistors generally consists of a silicon collector layer, a base layer of p-doped silicon germanium, and an emitter layer.
German laid-open patent specification 43 01 333 A1 describes a method of fabricating integrated silicon germanium hetero bipolar transistors in which a collector layer, a base layer, an emitter layer and an emitter connection layer are precipitated and doped at the same time in a single uninterrupted process. This method of fabricating transistors for high frequency applications suffers from the drawback that a further increase in the doping of the base with doping atoms would lead to an outdiffusion, i.e. a broadening of the base region, at a corresponding temperature. Outdiffusion of dopants, on the one hand, results in a non-uniform fabrication of transistors and, on the other hand, in a reduction of collector and emitter currents. Accordingly, it is not possible by this method to improve the high frequency properties of transistors. Also, broadening of the doped regions limits a further reduction of the structure.
Japanese patent application JP 5,102,177 discloses a silicon-germanium hetero bipolar transistor wherein 5% of the lattice in the base layer has been dislocated by carbon in order to compensate for mechanical strain introduced by the germanium. However, such high carbon concentrations result in a strong local lattice deformation which limits the suitability of such transistors for high frequency applications.
Also, in IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 17, No. 7, July 1996, pp. 334–337, as well as Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 60, No. 24, pp. 3033–3035, 1992 and Meter. Lett., Vol. 18, pp. 57–60, 1993, carbon is incorporated into the base for the purpose of attaining current compensation of germanium in silicon by carbon as well as a variation in the band gap. Optimum results were found at a carbon concentration of 5·1020 cm−3. Drawbacks similar to those of the above-mentioned JP 5,102,177 may be expected. In IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 17, No. 7, July 1996, pp. 334–337, large surface MESA transistors with emitter surfaces of 400 μm2 (line width 20 μm) were used to define static component properties. Such transistors with large emitter surfaces do not satisfy high frequency applications.
To fabricate SiGe transistors suitable for high frequency applications line widths less than 2 μm are necessary as disclosed, for instance, in T. F. Meister: SiGe Base Bipolar Technology with 74 Ghz fmax and 11 ps Gate Delay; IEDM95-739.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,901 discloses a silicon carbide transistor in which silicon carbide is used as the material for the base, collector and emitter. The high fabrication temperatures prevent their integration into circuits suitable for high frequency applications.